Gettin Into Audio...

Ok, I need some serious help here. I'm thinking abou getting into audio, but I have no clue what I need to buy to be able to record or whatever.

I have Cool Edit Pro 2, but that's it.

So if anybody could recomend good mics, and any other equipment required. Because I've herd about "Pre-Amps", but I'm not even sure what they do, so any help is good, and equipment recomendations would be much appreciated.

BUT, further....if you're just starting out you might want to just get comfortable with recording by buying a cheaper dynamic mic and then move up to a higher quality and cost setup when you think yu're ready. all you'd need is the mic and you can just plug it into ya computer and record. i'd recommend the SHURE SM58 model.

but if you want to go for condensers, drop ya budget n shit. cuz then you need to consider a preamp/mixer as well. so how much you got to spend?